Steadying Hand
by NCISgirl1527
Summary: If she should ever sway Jimmy was there to steady her... Annie and Jimmy discuss the events of Betrayed. Jimmy/Annie friendship. Enjoy.


_**I really liked Betrayed, and I started this fic right after it aired and then I kind of forgot about it but I had a week off school for snow, and I figured that I should finish it before the show came back for the second half of the season. It is my second Jimmy and Annie fic and my second Chase fic. I hope you like it.**_

_**Spoilers: Betrayed**_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Chase.**_

"It's nearly midnight," Jimmy said quietly as he took a seat beside his partner. Her desk lamp was the only light glowing in the entire office.

"I thought you were with Natalie," Annie told him without looking up.

"I was, but her shift started," he explained, "And I wanted to talk to you."

"So you came here?" she asked still not looking up.

"No," he replied with a shake of the head, "I staked out your place for a half an hour before I gave up and came here."

"I could have been sleeping," she pointed out, her eyes still glued to the paper in front of her.

"Car wasn't in the drive," Jimmy reminded her.

"Right," Annie muttered, and the two fell into silence. Annie was carefully studying the report in front of her, and Jimmy was watching her with an equal amount of care and dedication.

"That's the application of the kid who was killed today isn't it?" he asked her eventually.

"Yea," Annie replied a little regretfully, "he would have made a damn good Marshal."

"I'm sure he would have," Jimmy agreed, "I only met him once, but he seemed like a good kid." They lapsed into silence again, but after a few moments Jimmy broke it again. "Luke told me what happened."

"Which part?" Annie asked trying to sound indifferent.

"All of it," he replied, "but the part that really concerns me is that you nearly got killed."

"I was just doing my job," she told him a little defensively. Some part of her found it ironic that Jimmy warned her almost constantly not to do anything stupid or risky, but the times in the past few months where she had come closest to death had been times when she was doing things pretty much by the book.

"Annie, I'm not criticizing you," he said quickly, "It could have been any of us in there today. I just wanted to make sure that you were okay."

She was quiet for a few moments. Lying to Jimmy was a pointless activity. He knew her too well to believe her, and assuming that he would, would only hurt him.

"It never gets easier," she told him, finally looking up.

"No it doesn't," Jimmy agreed. He had, like Annie, had experience more than one life and death scenario, and she was right, it never got easier. It also never got easier for him to know how close he had come to losing her. He studied her face for a moment. "You look terrible," he told her.

"Now that's something every woman loves to hear," Annie replied sarcastically.

"I meant," Jimmy started a little apologetically but Annie cut him off with a shake of her head.

"I know," she told him, "I know." She knew perfectly well what he meant. She had not actually looked in a mirror since the fight, but she knew she could not look good. In terms of actually injuries, she had been very lucky, but the bruises and scratches that covered her body made things look a lot worse than they actually were. The swelling around her left eye probably was not helping much either.

"Luke didn't look too great either," Jimmy commented a little offhandedly because conversation seemed like a welcome alternative to silence at the moment.

"You know what happened wasn't his fault right?" Annie asked her partner, her eyes meeting his as she watched him carefully trying to get a read on what he was thinking. She knew that Luke would have been straight with Jimmy about what had happened in the hospital, but she was not entirely sure how much of the details Luke would have told.

"He told me the door was locked, and he couldn't get into the room," Jimmy replied, and Annie sighed knowing what Jimmy meant by not answering the question flat out.

"Jimmy," she told him quietly, "the door was locked from the inside. He could not get though it until I opened it, and in the end, if he had not been there, I would be dead." There was no fear in her voice; it was just a simple statement of fact.

"I know that," Jimmy told her. Luke had implied as much when he had recounted the story, but of course he had never actually flat out said that he had save Annie's life. "I just feel like I should have been there."

"You could not have done anything more than Luke did," Annie pointed out, "you may have been on the team longer, but that still does not give you the ability to break down the type of doors they use in the morgue." Jimmy chuckled slightly at that, and Annie smiled. After a moment of silence she spoke again, and this time her tone was a little darker. "I can't imagine what it must have been like for him," she remarked, "I mean I've been attacked by fugitive more times than I can count so getting hit around a bit doesn't really bother me anymore, but if I had been on the other side of the door and he had been the one in the room," she paused, "it would have killed me."

Jimmy could not think of how to respond to that, aside from pointing out that she had been hit around more than 'a bit' today, so he simply nodded. He knew exactly how she felt. If presented with a choice, he would chose the position Annie had been in over the one Luke had been in without a second thought. Like Annie, he did not know what he would do if he were forced to watch helplessly as one of his friends was being attacked, and though he would never admit it to her, it would be even worse to watch if Annie was the person being attacked.

Annie yawning drew him out of his thoughts and back into the present. It was only now that it occurred to him that she must be exhausted. "You should go home," he told her.

"I'm fine," she told him trying, and failing, to stifle another yawn.

"No Annie," he replied firmly, "you have had a very long day, and you are going home."

"All right," she surrendered holding her hands up, "I'm coming." As she stood up she swayed a little, and Jimmy reached out and put a steadying hand on her shoulder. She smiled gratefully at him.

That was part of what she loved about Jimmy. He understood her in a way that no one else ever seemed to. He noticed the small things, and even if she had managed to convince everyone else that she was fine, he would come and check on her.

He was always there to steady her.

_**It did not turn out exactly the way I wanted, but I think I like it anyway. Please leave a review and tell me what you though. Thanks.**_


End file.
